Spain Continues to Reign as Tourist Favourite with Alicante-Elche Airport

Alicante-Elche (El Altet) Airport records best November in history with 9.3% increase in passenger numbers

A heavyweight in the arena of world tourism, Spain looks set to register 2015 as its third consecutive record year for tourism. According to the most recent statistics released by Spain's National Statistics Office, the first 11 months of 2015 saw tourist levels reach 64.6 million, an impressive 4.8% increase in comparison to the same period in 2014.

Tourism Minister Jose Manuel Soria has said that December's figures are expected to top the 3 million mark, putting the full-year estimate at around 68 million tourists. Leading the way in this growing sector were visitors from the UK with a huge rise of 12.6% in visitor numbers in November alone, when compared with the 2014 figures, and it would seem that, as a stand-out destination, the Costa Blanca is emerging as the latest go to destination.

Alicante-Elche (El Altet) Airport, known as the gateway to the Costa Blanca, has just recorded the best November in its history with 645,520 passengers passing through, a 9.3% increase on the previous year. Aena's most recent figures show that international traffic of commercial flights also increased by 11% in November, as once again visitors from the UK recorded the highest volumes of passengers.

Marc Pritchard, Sales and Marketing Director for leading Spanish homebuilder Taylor Wimpey España, who currently has three key developments in the Costa Blanca region, also celebrated a momentous November last year, with 2016 also opening strongly. He explains,

"Our own statistics for November 2015 show a significant 313% increase in reservations compared to those made in the same period in 2014, a very positive growth trajectory with which to close 2015. Not only this, but we have also started the New Year extremely positively in light of this, with many enquiries from those looking for the ideal holiday home for 2016.
"Costa Blanca has always been popular with tourists; however we have certainly noticed a new surge of interest in this region in particular. In recent years the area has been revitalised with an injection of modern developments and an array of facilities to accommodate visitors from all over the world, re-establishing it as the go-to holiday home destination on the Spanish coast."

The latest report from the World Tourism Organisation shows that Spain attracted approximately 6% of all global tourism in 2015. These figures suggest that this already popular destination is set to remain on the international stage as an established favourite for the foreseeable future, with celebrated regions like the Costa Blanca continuing to provide visitors with the perfect holiday setting.